So why was James Dolan listening to Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony in a game last week with microphones picking up everything he said? We still don’t know for sure. However, Anthony â€” in London now preparing for New York and Detroit’s one-off game abroad â€” said today he’s grateful to have an owner who “looks out” for him.

Well, more like listened in, but here’s his public opinion on Dolan’s order to have a tape of Anthony’s verbal game send directly to him. Of the two possible reasons why Dolan would pull such a move â€” either assessing whether his star is being baited or if he is is his star mentally tough enough to put up with it â€” Anthony supports the former, not surprisingly. That’s fine, and maybe Dolan was listening in to see if any opponent would try to take advantage of ‘Melo after his one-game suspension directly related to challenging Kevin Garnett after his trash talk. Still, it doesn’t answer the question I still am confused about from this whole thing: Had Dolan found players were baiting Anthony, what was he going to do with the evidence? It’s hard to believe the league office would take any action based on trash talk alone.

“If an owner tries to protect their players, trying to protect his player, you can’t beat that,” Anthony said one day after arriving in London.
The Knicks are in the British capital to play a regular-season NBA game against the Detroit Pistons on Thursday, the second time the league has come to London for a meaningful game.
And Knicks coach Mike Woodson easily was more interested in the Pistons than the miking story.
“I don’t really care about the miking thing. I don’t follow it and haven’t followed it,” Woodson said. “I got better things to worry about than this miking thing that you guys are talking about.”

Maybe Woodson should ask his team’s owner, who seems to know what everyone’s talking about.